Chapter 34. Second day of the Vacation

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Shrishti woke up to her alarm shrieking. What? Why? Who? How? It took her a while to gather her bearings and understand. Right! She was in Darjeeling! It was 2 AM! Right! Pappa's trip! She sighed and turned around to wake Megha up. The girl took a while but she woke up. While they may have woken up groggy, by the time it was 3, they were alert and wide awake and ready to go on an adventure.

Shrishti and Megha walked out of the room to see Arpit and Raghav ready and waiting for both of them. Raghav was fully clad in black while Arpit had black coat but rest of his outfit was in colours. Both wore jeans and sweaters over which they wore coats too. Arpit wore a bright blue earmuffs but Raghav wore the black beanie Shrishti had gifted him. She huffed in annoyance at seeing it. Both men wore scarves around their neck and gloves in their hands just like Megha and Shrishti. Shrishti and Megha were clad similarly with only puffer jackets in place of long coats. Both had earmuffs and the scarves covered their head too.

The door to her Pappa's room opened and out came the man. He wore a pullover instead of sweater over his shirt and held a coat in his hands.

'Pappa! Wear a scarf, atleast?', Shrishti huffed when she noticed that the man did not wear scarf or gloves or anything to cover his ears.

'Pari beta! I will be fine. This cold is nothing to me!', her Pappa said softly.

Shrishti shook her head. 'No! Wear it or we are not going!'

'Pari...'

'No, Pappa! I am not coming.' She turned to open her door and her Pappa finally sighed and went in to his room. He came out wearing his gloves and scarf. She heaved a sigh of relief. She did not want him falling sick. With his heart issues, she could not afford to have him getting sick too.

After a while, all five of them were getting into the van for the day. Surprisingly, Raghav ended up beside her in the middle section.

'Uhh...' Shrishti stared at Raghav with surprise, both having gotten into the van from opposite doors.

Raghav stared back, his eyes reminding her of the phrase, deer caught in the headlights.

'I told Raghav Bhaiyya that I want sit in the back.', Megha spoke up from behind making Shrishti nod. Raghav looked away and both finally relaxed. The doors were closed and the drive began.

'Now atleast tell us where we are going!', Shrishti asked her Pappa who sat at the front again.

Pappa chuckled. 'Patience Pari beta, patience.'

'Yeah, Pari! Have some patience!', Arpit quipped from behind making Shrishti roll her eyes. She turned around to give him her piece of mind for teasing her, only to come pretty close to Raghav's face. Apparently, he had turned around the same time.

Shrishti pulled away and looked down awkwardly. Her heart rate increased as she remembered how close Raghav was. She could almost count his lashes! This trip was going to be the death of her, wasn't it? She was doomed, wasn't she?

After that incident, Shrishti kept her head turned towards the window and did not even look towards anybody in the van. She frowned when in the darkness, she sensed that the van was actually going higher. Where were they actually going?

'Oh wow!' Megha gasped. 'The roads are so curvy and the turns are so sharp.'

'And we are going up. Where are we going?', Arpit sounded curious.

Finally Pappa revealed where they were going. 'We are going to Tiger Hill to see the sun rise.'

Various exclamations of Oh and Wow exploded in the van.

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